Methods notably for editing movements of a robot are known. Such methods enable a developer or user to edit movements which the robot will then be able to reproduce. This may involve, for example, a walking or dancing movement, or more simply, the lifting or waving of an arm.
In such a known method, a computer program is loaded onto the computing device suitable for communicating with the robot. This computer program generates, for example, an interface which enables the position of one or more joints of the robot to be modified via motors associated with these joints. The interface may appear on a screen of the computing device in the form of a cursor to be moved between two boundaries, or a numerical value to be modified. The modification of the position of the cursor or the numerical value enables the position of a motor of the robot to be modified. This robot may be either a real robot separated from the computing device, or a virtual robot displayed, for example, on a screen of the computing device.
In the known methods, a plurality of positions are therefore defined for the robot thanks to the computer program loaded on the computing device.
These different positions are then integrated into a temporal sequence of positions, referred to as a “timeline”. Such a temporal sequence of positions includes a series of reference positions, referred to as “keyframes”, which are interlinked via a temporal transition in such a way as to define the temporal sequence of positions. In the temporal sequence of positions, the different positions to be assumed by the robot, and therefore the different positions of the motors of the robots, are generated as mentioned above from the interface displayed on the computing device, for example by means of a cursor.
An editing method of this type based on a cursor displayed on the computing device offers the advantage of enabling a fine adjustment of the reference positions in the temporal sequence of positions.
However, a method of this type is inconvenient for defining substantial movements of the robot and, therefore, rough adjustment of the positions. In particular, if the movements of the robot are defined on the basis of a cursor actuating a motor, it is complicated to manipulate the cursors of each of the motors to be actuated for a sufficient movement. The known methods for editing movements of a robot do not therefore enable a user to edit a wide range of movements in a simple manner.